Could be useful to pre-populate and bootstrap a fresh personal use server/service...

I would love to see a return to more Usenet usage, as well as more semi-private BBS style networks transported over NNTP instead of FTN/Binkley protocols... These days most BBS systems are mostly local sysops and maybe a couple other sysops as users. I do think there's room for some modernization, but even then, I'd love to see a comeback.

Especially as the powers that be are progressing towards forcing ID verification on common social media sites... not that I have anything to hide, and I at least have #1A rights still, but so many around the world simply don't.

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PaulRobinson 2 days ago | parent [-]

I've thought about this a few times over the years, and the protocol is broken in ways that lead to poor UX - the whole thing became over-ran with crap. I do think it's possible to fix this with better client software, but nobody wanted to do that work, because everyone interested in building communities could make a lot more money taking VC funding and creating it in a walled garden that's now getting ID verification walls around it.

	▲	tracker1 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah... I mean, you don't have to implement everything to be useful as a message platform though... most of the extension usage are kludges anyway. Also, can probably simply use UTF8 and UTC/GMT by convention where the client displays local date/time, etc. Can also revamp a lot of aspects by convention in-network as part of the server/client structures. That said, I'd still say it's useful, you just need to at least have user/system authentication as plain text over nntp(s\|es) to significantly reduce spam.